INSTRAW, in collaboration with other organizations, promotes and produces knowledge and information on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Institute encourages people and organizations to carry out action-oriented research on gender-related issues, particularly in developing countries, that will have a concrete impact on policies and programmes. Currently, INSTRAW is working in three areas: Gender and Security Sector Reform, Financing for Development and Gender, Migration and Remittances.

Gender and Security Sector Reform

Security sector reform is a crucial component of equitable and sustainable development, reconstruction and peace-building work; however this field has remained largely gender-blind, ignoring the distinct threats to security faced by women, men, girls and boys - in particular gendered insecurities such as violence against women.

More research and practical experience are needed in the realm of gendering the security sector in order to ensure the right to security for women, men, girls and boys as well as to create a just, democratic and effective security sector. INSTRAW seeks to address this gap in information and implementation by opening an online space that provides a basic understanding of the issues, numerous resources and opportunities to network and exchange information, as well as engaging in the process of developing specific research and capacity-building activities.

INSTRAW prioritises the collection, evaluation and replication of good practices, case studies and other concrete examples in all of its work, as well as awareness-raising and capacity-building among professionals in the realm of security sector reform, academics, policy-makers, and non-governmental and United Nations practitioners.

Financing for Development

Important advances have been made since the holding of the First United Nations Conference on Women (Mexico 1975). However women, especially those belonging to marginalized and extremely poor groups, continue to face discrimination, impediments to the free exercise of their rights, and obstacles to their capacity to develop. This reality calls for the implementation of concrete actions to rectify these conditions and guarantee women's development, and that of their societies.

Therefore, it is of vital importance that national, international, and civil society organizations dedicated to the empowerment of women and to gender equality continue to be involved in research, and to participate in the implementation of development-related international agreements. In this regard, two initiatives are urgently required: 1) integration of the principles and actions of the gender-related agreements (Cairo, Beijing) in financing for development-related processes, and 2) follow-up on advances in the implementation of the agreements from a gender perspective.

In order to facilitate these initiatives, INSTRAW promotes analyses of the agreements and actions surrounding financing for development from a gender perspective. A brief review of the contents of these agreements, the advances made in their implementation, and the main areas of concern for gender equality in the different stages of the financing for development process is included.

Gender, Migration and Remittances 

In the last few years, the number of women who independently migrate as main economic providers has increased. Consequently, their contribution to their country's and their family's economic development is becoming more important, as are their remittances. Nevertheless, the majority of studies and programmes on remittances have ignored the gender dimension. Furthermore, data related to the sending, receiving and use of  remittances is seldom disaggregated by sex.

Remittances are much more than sums of money sent from one person to another. They reflect an intricate combination of dynamics that interact at individual, social, economic and political levels. Analyzing remittances from a gender perspective allows us to approach all these levels simultaneously and to understand their inter-relations and their impact on women.

INSTRAW recognizes the need to highlight the economic contribution of female migrants to developing countries, and thus has begun the discussion on the gender dimensions of migration and remittance flows, which will lead to the organization of both a Seminar and virtual debates, and to the development of an analytical framework that will include case studies.

__________________________________________________________________________________